THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



83 



hide a known inferiority under the inspector's 

 brand.* 



The principles of good government, then, which 

 apply to the case, are all violated by the^e laws. 



III. So far as inspection,- tax any portion of the 

 community they should follow the general princi- 

 ples of taxation, unless there be good rea -on to de- 

 viate from them. But taxation should be, 1, uniform 

 both as to proportion and district; 2, it should bear 

 least heavily cn things lear>t able to pay; 3, it 

 should not be excessive; 4, h should enure to the 



* A case has recently been decided in which Dr. R. C. 

 Mason of Alexandria, (who will excuR i ub for rising his 

 name to illustrate a principle,) got a verdict from a jury 

 against the vender of Chappell's Fertilizer, a Baltimore 

 nostrum. The case is now before the judge on a demurrer 

 to evidence ; but the principle of recovery under warranty 

 is not disputed. That he could have had no such recourse 

 if he had bought under an inspector's brand, is evident 

 from the following, which we take from the Journal of 

 Commerce, and in which it will be seen that the point of 

 substitution of guarantee, aa far as inspection goes, is a 

 conceded point : 



" Light Weight in Plouk. — The Cincinnati and Pitts- 

 burgh Chambers of Commerce hare had correspondence 

 ■frith reference to a case where a merchant in the latter 

 city ordered flour from his agent in Cincinnati, which duly 

 passed inspection, being pronounced "all right," but which 

 on arriving at its destination, was found to be deficient in 

 Weig lu from three to ten pounds per barrel. The seller 

 •ecfiniug to pay for the short weight, the matter was re- 

 ferred to the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, and their 

 decision being adverse to the plaintiff, on the ground that 

 the defendants only guaranteed the inspection in Cincin- 

 nati, the case was carried to the Committee of Appeals, 

 who confirmed the decision of the arbitrators. On being 

 afterwards referred to a committee of the Pittsburgh Cham- 

 ber of Commerce for consideration, a lengthy report was 

 made, in which a very different view of the matter is 

 taken. The committee sum up the ca6e as follows : 



' The committee respectfully dis3ent from the opinion of 

 arbitrators for the reasons before named, to wit : That in 

 the absence of any law in Ohio requiring an inspector to 

 ■weigh or determine the quantity of flour in a barrel, and 

 one hundred and ninety-fix pounds the legal established 

 amount necessary to constitute a barrel, and with unques- 

 tioned evidence as to the deficiency in weight, the com- 

 mittee were bound to consider the points in relation thereto, 

 and that their decision upon such technical points against 

 the plaintiffs recovery is unjust, and subrersire of prin- 

 ciples that govern buyer and seller. 



" ' They also remark, that as the law in Ohio in regard 

 to the inspection of flour now stands, false tares and false 

 weights may be practised upon the purchaser with im- 

 punity and without redress. This is a still greater evil, in 

 view of the fact that since the large advance in bread- 

 stufls false tares and false or deficient weights in flour 

 have been and are proverbially common. They think that 

 claims for such deficiencies should be made a case for 

 legal decit-ion.' 



" Much of the flour that arrives at this port is snort in 

 weight, and a false tare for th« package is by no means of 

 an uncommon occurrence, but it is difficult to determine 

 what is the best remedy. Sometimes the barrel is badly 

 made, and the flour sift*: out in transportation ; this is es- 

 pecially true in winter, when flour is brought in for a long 

 distance over the railroads, a loss of from 3 to 5 lbs. being 

 alna'^t certain. There are nvtny millers, however, who do 

 not give full standard weight, and something should be 

 done to prevent this fraud. In dry goods the statutes of 

 New York and Pennsylvania exact a penally for short 

 measure ; if the same rule were adopted in regard to flour, 

 and the neller were obliged to restore three-fold the defi- 

 ciency, there would be lewer complaints of light weight." 



benefit of the Slate, and not go into the pocket o 

 the collector. 



In applying the test of the above principles, let it 

 be remembered, that our present tax is 20 cts. on 

 the hundred dollars of value, or one fifth of one per 

 cent. In 1842, when ihe taxes were first raised to 

 preserve the honor of the State, and the whole sys- 

 'om of taxation was reformed, the then amount of 

 12 cents, or half of I per cent.— but little more than 

 half the present sum— was considered so heavy thai 

 a hue and cry was raised by one party, which de- 

 feated the other, and fixed from that time forth the 

 political character of Albemaile county, the resi- 

 dence of the resolute and patriotic member whjo 

 moved and carried the tax in the face of opposition 

 even from his own friends. The present rate k 

 deemed so high, that rather than increase it material- 

 ly, every Internal Improvement which the State has 

 patronized is to be suspended, and only so much ad- 

 ded to the present burdens as will pay obligations 

 now due, and prevent the shame of repudiation 

 As no one disputes the necessity of these improve- 

 ments, some idea of the popular sense of the pres- 

 ent amount of taxation, may be inferred from U*e 

 course decided on. 



1. The following figures, from the Richmond 

 Daily Dispatch, will show the amount and value of 

 Guano and Plaster imported into Richmond within 

 the year. 



Yon*. Talne* 



Peruvian guano, - 18,665 • tl,026,f7S- 



Mexican " 963 - Z3,tT9 



Plaster, - 4,18? - 20,^6 



TofcU, - - 23,814 $l,081,l«f 



Allowing Petersburg, the only other point of 

 State Inspection for Guano and Plaster, to sell one 

 third as much, which is certainly within the mark, 

 we have 31,752 tons at a value of SI ,441, 573. Upon 

 this amount the Inspector's fees, at 20 cents per ton, 

 are $6,548 40 (or 5,562 80 for the Richmond, and 

 SI, 587 60 for the Petersburg Inspector.) This is 

 45 cents on the hundred dollars of value on all, or 

 more than double the present rate of State taxt 

 But the tax is the same on all, though they are 

 worth respectively $60, $30 and S5 per ton, and of 

 course they pay inversely to their values, the tax 

 being twice as high on Mexican guano, and twelve 

 times as high on gypsum as it is on Peruvian 

 guano, while superphosphates and other artificial 

 manures, which afford facilities for fraud, are sever 

 seen by the inspector at all. 



There are about 50,000 hogsheads of tobaeeo 

 annually inspected in the State; their average 

 weight maybe assumed at 1,300 lbs.; the average 

 value 87 the cwt.j total 65,000,000 lbs., worth 

 $4, 550,1 or $'91 per hhd. To get at the tax upon 

 this we have only to compare the charges as they 

 are in Riehmond — assumed to be a fair sample of 

 charges ©lsowhere — with what would be fair totes 



